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The crows encountered by Bilbo Baggins and the Dwarves during the quest to Erebor in T.A.2941[1] were mostly harmless. During the scouting expedition to the Front Gate of the Lonely Mountain the crows were considered "ominous" and Balin distrusted them,[2] though later he called them merely "nasty suspicious-looking creatures at that, and rude as well".[3]

In J.R.R. Tolkien's plot notes for the second phase of writing The Hobbit, there was no distinction between crows and ravens as ominous birds.[10] When the scouting party went to view the Front GateBalin did not like the ravens nearby, stating that they looked "like spies of evil".[11] However, when the Company needed to learn of the death of Smaug Tolkien "rehabilitated" the ravens, making them friendly to the Dwarves, and replaced all negative raven-references with crows.[12]